Since I was 15 years old, I have been teaching. Then it was Children’s Church. Later it was Children’s Church, Kids for Christ and finally Lighthouse Christian Academy where I taught kindergarten through 12th grade for ten years. However, the one thing I actually learned from teaching is that you can really only teach the teachable.
My daddy had said that to me several times during my childhood, but I think it took becoming an adult to truly understand it.
As a child I always loved to learn and I was always challenged by the generations before me. My father, who was an only child, had been challenged by his mother (my Grandma Eloise), who might have only had an eighth-grade education but was smarter than most of us who attended college. She loved to read and would read every book put in front of her, including my father’s college books on biology, physics, toxicology and criminal law. Her favorite books of all though were the Bible and the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
My father was a very educated man and became a forensic chemist for the OSBI for 25 years before he retired. But every day that man was challenging one of us with his intellect. He would make up games and challenge our vocabulary. His favorite game was Boggle and let me tell you one thing, he boggled our brains constantly as he scored points from words we had never heard of as we looked them up in the dictionary, time after time. I think he loved to pick our brains to see what we really comprehended. He didn’t do it in a haughty way, but in an amenable way to teach us something new each day.
As an adult I still love to learn, but I think we have gotten lazy and ironically it’s due to technology being at our fingertips. We used to memorize phone numbers, facts and pick up a dictionary to figure out one word which led you to learning more words. I loved a thesaurus when I was younger and still do. There’s still something about truly holding a hard copy in your hands that’s appealing to me. Yes, I’ve still enjoyed having a Kindle to read from also, but nothing is as satisfying as curling up in a warm blanket and a good book. There’s also nothing to compare with the gift of learning. It is something that will benefit you a lifetime if you will always be teachable.
As a journalist today, every Tuesday while putting together and proofreading two newspapers, I still find myself learning new words, especially from our seasoned editor, Jerry Fink, who is constantly throwing in a word or two that I still have to look up its meaning.
As a teacher you have to identify and develop those who you are teaching to help them grow in their ability to understand just how important learning is every day. I believe a good teacher teaches you something that you learn for today, but a great teacher teaches you something that lasts a lifetime.
This is why it’s so important to have a teachable spirit. Real teaching imparts truth to people. Hosea 4:6 simply states “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as my priests (teachers of the law). Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.” I believe this is the real downfall of lacking knowledge (especially spiritual discernment) because not only do we suffer from the lack of knowledge, our children will also suffer because they won’t have a teachable spirit.
I believe this is what is happening today. We have lost our ability to teach and don’t have a teachable spirit anymore. We are stubborn and set in our ways and now our children are rising up in that same ignorance. So what happens when no one is teachable any longer? We will no longer be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” We will perish from our lack of knowledge and ignorance will rule and reign.
However, if we choose to have a teachable spirit then we can hold onto the truth in His Word and hopefully teach our children to live peaceably with all men. This is why I say teach the teachable. 2 Timothy 3:16 -17 that states “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
I know that “The fear (reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” (Proverbs 1:7) and “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5) So, I’m going to do my best to always have a teachable spirit and to remember my daddy’s famous words of why “You can’t fix stupid” because you can only teach the teachable.
